Where I'm from...."Where the waters divide and the people unite." That's the town motto of precious Botkins, OH, a small village nestled on the continental divide in midwest Ohio. Growing up, I was always a bit confused by the motto, because I didn't see any bodies of water around for us to be dividing, although I did see plenty of people uniting. With 1,200 people, 0 stoplights, and an infinite amount of tough love and community support, Botkins gave me roots I feel blessed to have.
I will always love my sweet hometown, but the best years of my life have been the ones when I began to realize all that the world has to offer beyond the corporation limits of B-town, U.S.A. I am forever changed by the experience of serving the student organization, FCCLA (Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America), as the National First Vice-President. The election process truly terrified me, but embarking on the journey and emerging successfully on the other side gave me the momentum and self-awareness to achieve substantial personal growth. By traveling around the country, forging connections, and challenging my leadership capabilities, I came to develop skills and goals that led me to the University of Cincinnati and opened my eyes to enormous possibilities. It was actually at an FCCLA event that I connected with a 4th-year Organizational Leadership student at UC who described with enthusiasm her love for the school and the program. At the time, I was finishing my junior year of high school with some semblance of what I wanted to do with my life, but no idea how to get there. As she explained the Organizational Leadership program, a path lit up before me connecting where I was and where I wanted to be. It was everything that I wanted - leadership studies and practical business experience - rolled into one. I scheduled a visit to UC for the following week. After the tour, my mom and I stood at the railing overlooking Nippert Stadium, and I think I must have been smiling softly because she looked at me and said, "This is it, isn't it?" I smiled a little wider and said, "Yes." |
Many graduates of small high schools can concur that one is both blessed and cursed with the opportunity and obligation to participate in nearly every student activity available. My experience at Botkins was this way. At BHS, you won't find strict groups of "band kids," "nerds," or "jocks," because the first chair trumpet player is probably on student council and the Academia team, sings in the musical, and serves as both the treasurer of the FFA and catcher on the baseball team. I cherished the opportunity to act on musical endeavors and excel at academics, and all the while play sports and take on leadership roles in various organizations. In a small school with more activities than students, this type of experience is fairly commonplace. While I developed a primary activity in my later years with FCCLA, nonetheless I juggled other positions with minimal casualties. This "I can do it all" mentality emerged as a challenge when I arrived at UC. From the start I jumped right in and got involved in a diverse plethora of activities. I don't regret this exploration, but my habit of saying 'yes' got me in trouble. I got over-involved. From the outside, I was succeeding and getting everything that I thought I wanted, but on the inside, I was struggling. I enjoyed my individual activities and jobs, but altogether, I couldn't give any of them my all. I started to develop a particular aptitude for certain responsibilities, like Honors Ambassadors, and a longing to get more involved in others, like H2O Church, but my overcommitment burdened me. I began to resent some of my engagements because of the way I was hindered from investing more where I really wanted to. It took time before I accepted that I needed to cut back. I was so rooted in the notion of doing it all and doing it all well, but after a painstaking reality check, I prioritized and planned for a purification. I realized that just because I could do something, and even if I was good at something...that didn't mean I had to do it. I vowed to invest time only into what I found meaningful. And thus, at the start of my second year of college, I took a deep breath, cringed a little bit, and started using the word "no."
Tough as it was for me to get the hang of, saying "no" and cutting back turned out to be such a blessing. Being more selective and investing more into less ventures has resulted in the opportunity to get the most out of the projects that I really love. Not only have I been able to invest more deeply in organizations, but also people. The relationships I have formed this year in supportive communities like UHP and H2O have been abundantly fruitful. I am so thankful to have learned the lesson of prioritization, and I am pleased with the new direction my life has taken. More importantly, with the release of each activity in which I once placed my worth and identity, the more I place my worth in Jesus, where it belongs. I am grateful to be a student leader in H2O church, where I get to live life with peers and friends who challenge me to lean into God and serve Him. I'm so thankful to be a Bearcat. When I look back at my time at UC, not only do I want to walk away with a diploma, I want to jog away from a race well run, grinning but thoroughly worn out, conditioned for the next chapter of life. I cherish being apart of organizations, communities and groups that present some of the race's toughest obstacles, but certainly the best supporters and teammates. At the University of Cincinnati, I'm involved in the University Honors Program as an Honors Ambassador, and I serve as a ROAR Tour Guide and a student leader for H2O Campus Ministry. I also work at the Learning Assistance Center as an Academic Coach. In addition to the learning that takes place through leadership in extracurriculars, I recognize that college presents a vast array of opportunities and resources to learn through travel. During the summer of 2016, I was able to travel to San Jose, Costa Rica, and Togo, West Africa. Both of these experiences gave me the opportunity to serve or intern with incredible and successful nonprofits, and these experiences affirmed my love for missions and nonprofits. You can read more about both of these experiences under my Honors Portfolio tab. |
"But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God." -Acts 20:24 “Though nobody can go back and make a new beginning... Anyone can start over and make a new ending.” -Chico Xavier |
"The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today." -Elbert Hubbard
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Where I'm going..."You know, I think I could do this for the rest of my life."
I whispered these words to my good friend Ellie over the wall that separated our cubicle spaces during the summer of 2015 at the National FCCLA Headquarters. We had moved to Washington, D.C to pursue national staff positions with FCCLA, where I had the privilege of serving as the Programs Intern. I am intrinsically motivated, and thus, I cherished working for a nonprofit organization with a mission I stand behind. In some ways, working for a nonprofit is exactly what you would expect. You are constantly challenged to use your scarce resources as efficiently as possible, and each day is a new game of turning "cannot's" in "can's" with a little ingenuity. The nonprofit world is full of people with kind, golden hearts, and yet a fierce determination to move mountains. Working for a nonprofit usually deviates from expectations when you realize that every day doesn't fill your heart with overwhelming joy and affirmation that you are doing good and changing the world. Each day isn't made of marshmallow fluff, and if you look for confirmation of your impact each day, you won't find it. It's sort of like creating one of those animated flipbooks, where each day is like adding a new page with an indiscriminate, tiny change. It doesn't feel like you're making much progress, but after days and weeks and months, you flip through the book and find that you've created a beautiful animation. I found that I thrived in the nonprofit space. I put my spiritual gift of administration to work, and I loved the necessity to strain behind the scenes and then emerge at times to work on the front lines. For us, that looked like spending weeks preparing for the National Leadership Conference, where we would host 8,000 students, before a sleepless week of executing the meeting on site. It meant arduous hours behind a desk - planning, writing, creating - before we met with our student leaders to provide training and support. The nonprofit world has turned out to be a very inspiring and propelling place for me, and since my internship with FCCLA, I have worked to gain experience in other organizations to broaden my horizons. I loved spending time each week during the school year to serve as a volunteer administrative assistant for the Executive Director of Magnified Giving, a student philanthropy organization in Cincinnati. I completed full-time internships with Magnified Giving in the summers of 2016 and 2017. I graduated from UC with my Bachelor's Degree in Organizational Leadership in December 2017, and I am excited to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Cincinnati. In the mean time, I continue to gain experiences in the nonprofit sector working as the Programs Intern at Magnified Giving and the Youth Programs Intern at City Gospel Mission! Additionally, I was married on May 13, 2017, and I am completely jazzed to live life with my best friend, Kyle, and learn what it takes to buy/maintain a house and be a wife. Kyle and I just bought our first home, and we look forward to it being a place where we can minister to and serve others. Already, I know that marriage will be a means for incredible personal growth and character development as I learn to put Kyle's needs before my own and partner with him in life to do ministry together! Kyle works on campus as a staff member for H2O Campus Ministry, and we love being Bearcats together. I am excited to keep investing in the community and university that has invested so much in me. |